LEMONADE

We are witnessing a transformation, folks. When I speak to transformation in the context of Beyonce’s LEMONADE, am I speaking about the identity of Beyonce? Am I speaking about the state of music? Am I speaking about the power of womanhood? Am I speaking more specifically about black womanhood? Am I speaking about love? Heterosexual relationships? Am I speaking about the masses? Am I speaking about media marketing? Am I speaking about family? Civil rights? Am I speaking about religion? America? Am I speaking about art? Am I speaking about myself?

In a recent interview with E! Matthew Knowles (Beyonce’s father) states the following; “Let me tell you who she’s talking about, can I tell you who she’s talking about? She’s talking about you. You put that in context for you personally. She’s talking about you and everybody that is you, that’s who she’s talking about.”

The brilliance behind this visual masterpiece, is that every question I stated above, applies. Beyonce’s LEMONADE is a cultural atom bomb. It was MADE to withdraw your deepest symptoms. I can’t help but giggle watching the public go into a frenzy over Beyonce. The headlines exemplify our thirst for knowing, and needing. Entitlement; wreathing like vultures to devour the symbolism, to decode the messages.
“There must be a rational explanation for this.”
Remember that Beyonce has never put her personal life in the public eye, and she is not starting with LEMONADE. She is telling the story of millions of women, millions of African American women. She is using her platform to bring those histories to light. Isn’t it obvious?

It goes to show how far removed western society is to the concept of culture: arts, dance, poetry, music, and most importantly, storytelling. We are conditioned to consume, and in turn assume that art is a product to own and use, rather than an experience or feeling. What Beyonce has created with LEMONADE, is ART. Her duty as an artist, is to dramatize and augment her reality, and furthermore, ours. That is the point of the career she has cultivated over the years; she is here to create. I believe we are finally getting to see the Beyonce, one that has patiently waited beneath the surface, disciplined to the bigger picture. Years of hard work and chipping away, pop anthems and appearances have brought her to this point. She now has enough raw, grounded power to inject her truth within the world at large. She can now run free, every expansive idea, no limits, and no worries of who or what will support her choices.

Watch the video, listen to the questions that arise inside your head, try to answer them as if you know all the answers already, as if you were in the room when this project was made. If a sound or a scene makes you uncomfortable, if a word makes you smile… Greet them as your own experiences, for through this process you are relating or dissociating your truth. Remain conscious to what this really is; art.